U.S-based Westinghouse Electric Company started fuel loading on Thursday at Haiyang Unit 1, the company's one of two AP1000 nuclear power plants located in eastern China's Shandong province.
'This is a great day for Westinghouse, our China partners and the nuclear industry,' said the company's president and CEO, Jose Emeterio Gutierrez, in a joint statement released by Westinghouse and its customers, China State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC) and Shangdong Nuclear Power Company Limited (SDNPC).
'Haiyang Unit 1 continues to demonstrate our ability to deliver safe, innovative solutions for power generation,' Gutierrez said, adding Westinghouse would continue to deploy AP1000 technology throughout the world.
According to the statement, earlier in the summer, Haiyang Unit 1 'successfully completed the necessary testing' and regulatory reviews conducted by China's National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) for the preparation of fuel load.
'Haiyang Unit 1 met all the criteria, confirming the capability of Westinghouse’s AP1000 technology,' the statement read.
Westinghouse has four other AP1000 nuclear power plants progressing through construction, testing and start-up including two units in Sanmen, Zhejiang province, and another two units under construction at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Waynesboro in the U.S. state of Georgia.
In November 2014, Turkey's state-owned electricity generation company EUAS, SNPTC and Westinghouse announced a multi-party agreement to enter exclusive negotiations to develop and construct Turkey's third nuclear power plant.
By Huseyin Erdogan
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr